macrumors G5

A 60 or 80 Gb Seagate Momentus 5400.2 with 8 Mb cache would be the one - quiet, anda 5 year warranty.
The jump from 4200 to 5400 is significant. Although there are a few 7200 RPM drives, they are pricey and the delta 5400 to 7200 is not as dramatic in performance benefit. Both should be in your price range of CAN$200 or less

thread startermacrumors 68020

A 60 or 80 Gb Seagate Momentus 5400.2 with 8 Mb cache would be the one - quiet, anda 5 year warranty.
The jump from 4200 to 5400 is significant. Although there are a few 7200 RPM drives, they are pricey and the delta 5400 to 7200 is not as dramatic in performance benefit. Both should be in your price range of CAN$200 or less

macrumors G5

There is one available, a Toshiba 5400 with 16 Mb cache. In theory, the larger cache means more of the repetitive reads from the drive can be got from cache instead of from the hard drive, saving time. I have not yet been able to find test comparisons of performance between the Toshiba and Seagate. The Toshiba is apparently a touch (2 dB) quieter than the Seagate.

macrumors 68030

I totally agree - it comes down to what you're going to be using the PB for. I use my Powerbook as an on-the-go machine, so storage space isn't that important, but speed is. My Cube serves as my main desktop machine for storage. If you need a lot of space, I would go with a 5400rpm drive. But if you want something fast and are willing to give up some space, go with the 7200.

macrumors 65816

Thanks for the tip. I was eying the 100 GB Toshiba (16Mb cache). Have you owned that drive? I wonder how cool (as in temperature) and silent it is.

Anybody knows where I could get this one around here? (Montreal, Canada)

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Try MicroBytes they have a large selection (even though they don't have the Toshiba online). A friend of mine bought a hard drive there that they ordered in specifically for him. You could also try MegaPC they order stuff in as well, and they're located right outside De La Savane Metro (bought from them before, no problems)

**EDIT**

If your a student or associated with a uni, I would suggest asking the uni store to order it for you. They seem to have student setups with everyone and can give you pretty low prices.

thread startermacrumors 68020

I went to the store and ordered de Toshiba. They had none of those I had on my list in store but they could have the Tosh delivered from another store for tomorrow.

The PC guy behind the counter was kind of puzzled. He said something that sounded like: "16MB cache? Who need 16MB cache except maybe people who run 8 applications at the same time but nobody does that."

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